Send In The Fool
by Shintouyu
Summary: The Wild Card always finds a way!
1. Name Title Persona

**Send In The Fool**

Chapter One

_[Wake Up In A Casket And Have No Memories]_

__Name_Title_Persona__

* * *

The room was a dark blue.

An old man with wide-bloodshot eyes and a long-pointy nose sat comfortably on his couch with crossed legs and intertwined fingers, beside him was his lovely female assistant. Sitting across from these two was a young man with short blue hair, grey eyes, and the model expression of stoicism; he was wearing armor and looked out of place compared to his sharply-dressed hosts and the snappy decor of the room.

The old man greeted his guest. "Welcome to the Velvet Room. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter... And only those who have signed the contract can enter this place..." He gave a rather crooked his smile as he pushed a document toward his guest. "Though there is a bit of problem. You must sign the contract with your name... But you don't remember what that is, do you?"

The young man shook his head. He could remember absolutely nothing about who he was or much of anything else. He felt as if he had been asleep for a long time and only now he had just awakened.

"Then I will do you one favor and tell you your name. Are you ready?" The young man nodded. "Remember it well. Your name is... Minato Arisato."

_Mi-Na-To_._ A-Ri-Sa-To_.

The words smoothly roll off the young man's tongue.

He repeated it another time, then a third, followed by a fourth.

His name. So that was his name? It felt so right. Yes, this must be his name!

"Thank you."

"It is good to see you so pleased. My name is Igor and I am delighted to make your acquaintance." The old man's smile was little less crooked. "And this," he gestured without looking away, "is my assistant: Elizabeth."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" the lovely woman waved.

Minato nodded his head in response, "Hello."

From his coat-pocket, Igor pulled out a pen and placed it on the desk next to the document.

There was not much written on the document but a single line stood out to Minato: '_I chooseth this fate of mine own free will_'. He picked up the pen. Was there any reason to refuse? If there was then Minato couldn't remember why. With little hesitation, he signed the contract.

Igor rolled up the document and handed it to his assistant. "From now on, you shall be welcome here in the Velvet Room. I only ask of one thing in return... that you abide by the contract and assume responsibility for the choices you make."

The young man nodded in understanding.

"Hold on to this," Igor handed him a velvet-key, "This will unlock the door to the Velvet Room for you." The old man grinned, "Until we meet again, Master Minato."

The room faded to black.

[...]

Blurrily the world came into view as a nasally high-pitched voice barked out orders.

"Rub some acids in his eyes! That'll freshen him up!"

Small clawed-appendages did as the voice said and rubbed lemony-acid upon Minato's face. He groaned and winced, eyes tearing up, as he resisted. He pushed his way out of his casket, a small scowl on his face while he stumbled about. He rubbed his eyes and blinked away until his vision finally cleared up.

The first thing that Minato noticed were the brown goblin-like creatures staring at him with awe and wonder. Next was the rather large and disgusting clump of flesh that pulsed every so often at the corner it was tucked away in. After that was the dark and cramp cave they were all in. Lastly was that he had not a shred of garment to cover up his modesty.

With an expression as cold as carved stone and a face as red as a bad burn, Minato refused to speak or look at them. The ground was _so_ interesting... Was it possible to die from utter shame? Minato was very certain that he was close to finding out.

The oldest of the goblin-like creatures was swift to command.

"Cover him up! We wouldn't want our new Master to die from embarrassment, now would we?"

Minato was quickly draped by a raggedy cloak. It wasn't much but a beggar couldn't be a chooser; it was far better than being completely nude. He tugged the cloak tighter around himself and felt that something was wrong. No, perhaps 'wrong' was too strong a word; it was more like 'odd'. His body felt odd but he was not sure why. He figured it out soon enough. By the looks of his arms, he was slender, effeminately so. But it was the slenderness of someone who had lived most of their life on a sick-bed as opposed to a slim beauty. Though he had no memories, Minato had the impression that his body should have been more masculine and lean.

The old goblin-like creature seemed to share the sentiment of his fragility.

It was gray and wrinkly with a beard that told much about its age; compared to the bronze coloring of the others, it appeared fairly similar to a corpse. It shared the same golden eyes as its brethren, though age seemed to have instilled a greater cunning in them. It was dressed in tattered robes, which was far more extravagant than the loin-cloths that the others wore. And strapped to its back was a stick with a glowing crystal dangling from it.

"We have a lot of work to do," the old goblin-like creature said with an annoyed tone and a raised brow, "But, ah, some explanations are in order! We are Minions, your most loyal servants. I am Gnarl, the Minion Master, and these eager fellows are the Browns." It paused and bowed, the rest of the minions parroted the action, "And you, My Sire, are the Overlord!"

The what now?

The Oval Lure?

Despite Minato's blank expression, the Minion Master was aware of his confusion.

"The Overlord," it repeated in a jovial voice, "The _supreme_ master of all the Minions; the _supreme_ evil of all the lands; the _supreme_ lord of all Middle-Domain!" That was quite a bit of supreme but the point came across either way. "Yes... or at least, that is how it should be..." Disgust took over Gnarl's tone. "However, ten years ago, your predecessor was defeated by those pesky Seven Heroes. Normally, this would not be a problem; it's just how the struggle of good and evil goes, Milord; but those accursed Seven Heroes went and messed with the formula and unleashed a greater evil upon the land! Now, the once great title of Overlord no longer commands the respect and fear of the masses," it shook its fist, "Instead, they all cower in their beds, shaking with fright, at the merest Shadow!"

_'So, you were overshadowed?'_ Minato left jokingly unsaid.

If he understood the Minion Master's points then it would be summarized something like this:

_**1)** The Previous Overlord was defeated by the Seven Heroes._

_**2)** Minato was now the New Overlord._

_**3)** The legacy of the Overlord has fallen and now people are more afraid of Shadows._

"Indeed, that about sums it up," Gnarl nodded. Minato was not certain how the old minion knew what he was thinking about, was it a mind-reader? "I have had my fair share of experience with serving under the silent-type, Milord." Oh, that explained it.

So, if he understood what Gnarl wanted from him, as the newly appointed Overlord, Minato was now suppose to kill the Seven Heroes and then cement his rule over the lands.

"Correct."

Minato opened his mouth and spoke, his voice was weak and a pitch higher than he liked but it was firm, "...Where do we begin?"

Gnarl grinned quite wickedly, "I thought you would never ask!" He looked to the Browns, "Bring it here!" then turned back to Minato, "When your predecessor was defeated, we did not have much time to salvage for our valuables. Still, you are the Overlord and no decent Overlord would find themselves without _The Gauntlet_!"

Just as the name implied, The Gauntlet was a gauntlet, though it was a special gauntlet with some sort of orb resting within its steel form. Putting it on his left-hand, Minato found that it was both a tad heavy and not entirely fitting.

"Your body is not in the best of conditions, Milord. You had suffered a near-fatal accident and have been asleep for ten-years now. Your gauntlet, I'm afraid, won't fit like a glove until you gain some meat on you, Sire. But we have a more pressing matter at hand."

Minato did not get a chance to speak as the world around was suddenly tinted by an ominous green. The very air seemed to still while being replaced by the fresh scent of blood. The atmosphere contained a strange pressing weight.

"Hmm," Gnarl hummed, "People call it the Dark Hour, Milord. The hidden hour of the day which comes after midnight... it is also the time when those blasted Shadows roam free. If you're feeling sick, tell me now so I may avoid the hurl."

Minato felt unpleasant. As if a pressure was squeezing him from both the outside and in, yet somehow was not entirely uncomfortable. He felt nauseous to say the least.

The Minion Master took the silence as a cue to step back. "Minions! It's time we moved out. Take the Hive... and, oh, the Master as well!"

"YEZ, SER!"

The minions quickly scrambled as they lifted up their clump-of-flesh Hive and their new Overlord.

Minato only expressed mild surprise at the small creatures having the strength to so casually lift him up; they didn't have any trouble carrying him around either. "Where are we going...?" he mumbled.

Gnarl, despite his age, was also quite brisk in pace. "Anywhere but here, Milord. Shadows are fond of attacking beings that don't transmogrify during the Dark Hour." Minato need not ask before he received an explanation. "The Dark Hour is an irregular time, Milord. Normal beings can't survive long with the taint in the air, so they play dead in their coffins to protect themselves from the Shadows."

That did not really explain what 'transmogrify' meant but Minato at least understood that anybody active during the Dark Hour was apparently prey for the Shadows. Which meant he and the minions were possible target. Obviously, that meant it was better to keep moving here and there, rather than sticking around in one place.

[...]

Soon enough, black blobs were chasing after them — oozing out of the ground like bubbling sludge. Under Gnarl's directions, they were able to avoid most of the Shadows, though a few thick encounters had required them to run away. Were it not for the Browns' amazing speed, they would have been caught a long time ago.

As they skedaddle here and there across the hills, it seemed as if the Dark Hour would pass without any major incidents.

That was quickly proven wrong.

From the hill they were running up to, a frowning-mask peeked over the edge and it locked eyes with the New Overlord. There was something familiar about it... something that made him want to kill it. From behind the mask, several black limbs came forward and reached toward them. "Retreat!" Gnarl commanded and the minions back-pedaled. More black limbs rose from behind the frowning-mask but these were armed with knives.

Minato broke out of his trance and realized that they were now surrounded.

Gnarl was looking at him. "We're in a bit of a pickle, Milord. This may too much to ask for in your current state... but if you don't summon your Persona then we're sure to die."

"Persona?"

There was no more time to chat.

The slime-like Shadows attacked!

"PROTEK TEH HIVE!"

"FOUR TE MASTUR!"

"BAASSSHHHH IN ZEH PHACE!"

The Browns cried out as they dispersed to defend their Hive and Master. Against the weaker Shadows, they proved capable of stalling or killing them. But against the large Frowning Shadow, they were little more than pests and were easily skewered in the blink of an eye.

Unceremoniously dumped onto the ground, Minato wondered if there was anything he could do. Gnarl said to summon his Persona but what did that mean?

A smaller Shadow broke through their line of defense and lunged toward him. He did not think, he merely struck, an armored-fist sent toward the small Shadow's mask. With a crunch upon impact, the Shadow was sent flying.

"Hoh, what strength!" the Minion Master clapped in approval.

Minato blinked in surprise. Was he strong or were these Shadows weak? His pondering was cut short as more and more Shadows broke into the inner-circle and he was forced to join the battle. Even though he had been asleep for ten years, it seemed that his body still remembered how to fight. The smaller Shadows were easily dealt with as a single punch or slap was enough to destroy them; it helped that the Minions were useful distractions that allowed him to deliver critical-blows against the Shadows.

But, before he could get further into the groove of things, there were no more Minions to hold back the Frowning Shadow.

They came from the front, from the top, from the left, from every angle available to strike. It was only by luck that Minato was able to avoid the multiple knife-wielding appendages, while his gauntlet-hand had managed to block a cut which would have sliced open his neck. He rolled down the hill, "...Ugh, urgh..." and groaned when he stopped. Because of that, the most recent barrage of knives missed their mark.

The Frowning Shadow made it a point to ignore Gnarl and the other Minions. Without slowing down, it scrambled down the hill after him. Idly, he noted that, while the movements were fairly clumsy, the numerous limbs did not get tangled with one another.

It was pretty clear that Minato was the target.

And whatever Minions were left had prioritized the safety of the Hive over him, so he had to deal with the large Shadow on his own.

_'Great...'_ he sarcastically told himself. Minato grunted as he pushed himself off the ground, a hand on his head. _'What now?'_ Trying to close in and punch the thing would be a very bad idea for his health. For now, he ran away and kept his distance from the Shadow. _'Gotta think of something fast.'_ The Dark Hour was sapping away his stamina with every step.

Other than summoning his Persona, he wasn't sure what else he could do.

Minato made a quick glare at the Minions up the hill and bemoaned his fate.

"A helping-hand would be nice..."

[...]

Observing the life-and-and-death situation was Akihiko Sanada.

"That's a pretty big Shadow." He didn't know if he should have felt excited or afraid that there was such a huge Shadow next to the village. One thing was for certain though, he did not like what he was seeing. "Damn," he punched a fist into his palm and squeezed it.

"What do we do?" a shaky voice asked him.

Akihiko turned to face his scouting-partner with gritted teeth. Mitsuru had made it quite clear to him that his only role was to find out and report what the commotion near the village was all about. _'But...'_ Standing around and doing nothing did not sit well with him. _'Mitsuru is going to execute me for this...'_ He closed eyes and recomposed himself. "Alright! Yukari, you head back to town and ready our defenses!"

Yukari, Junpei, Kotone, Mitsuru, and himself should be more than enough to handle the large Shadow.

Yukari grew flustered at him for shouting when she was right next to him but nodded her head anyways, "Al-Alright!" and quickly retreated.

Akihiko pounded his fists together and dashed out of cover.

"HERE I GO!"

[...]

From out of nowhere, a man with silver hair and red vest appeared between Minato and the Shadow. He pulled out a metallic object and pointed it to his head. "Polydueces!" he shouted, followed by a bang. A figure of sky-blue and flowing gold appeared and struck the Frowning Shadow before disappearing. It was not a direct hit but the attack was enough to shove the Shadow aside. The man looked to Minato and gestured to himself, "Follow me!"

It seemed as if his prayers had been answered and help had arrived. Anything was better than here, so Minato quickly took the man's advice and followed after him. The newcomer grabbed his hand and lead the way, they sprinted as fast as they could.

"...What was that?"

"Persona; I'll explain the rest later!"

The Shadow was hot on their trail.

"Watch out for the trees!" the man shouted. His plan, for the forest to impede the Shadow's movement, worked and they were able to escape without much trouble as the squishy-stomps of the Shadow faded into the distance. Noticing that the girl with long blue hair was panting for breath, he stopped pulling and let go of her hand. "We'll rest here for the moment," he turned around, "Name's Akihi..." but quickly snapped his head elsewhere, "..Er... A-A-Akihiko S-Sanada..." He almost got an eyeful of the stranger's almost-nude body since she only had a raggedy cape to cover herself up with.

In-between breaths, Minato introduced himself, "My name is... Minato Arisato... thanks."

"Um, no problem!" Akihiko nervously thought how awkward the current situation was; his blazer would have been a nice thing to cover her up with but he never wore the thing during Dark Hour duties.

Using this moment of peace, Minato was able to get a better look at his savior.

Akihiko Sanada had short silver hair and stone-grey eyes, a strong face with an equally strong body, and a cut on his left brow. There was nothing that really stood out from his attire other than the red vest over the white shirt, the plated-gauntlets protecting his hands with a pointy-emphasize on the knuckles, the red band on his left arm, and the odd L-shaped device on his belt.

Silently, they stood around; not a sound around them except for their own breathing.

Quiet as quiet could be...

"So what's a Persona?"

Akihiko latched onto the subject like a life-line; the silent tension was fraying his nerves. He turned around and was about to speak but then realized he was looking at Minato again. Instead of rudely averting his gaze, he tried to keep his focus on the girl's face. For someone who had been chased by such a large Shadow, she was the picture-perfect portrait of calm or maybe even bored. Akihiko, on the other hand, was trying his damn hardest not to look any lower than her eyes.

"A Persona is..." He wasn't very knowledgeable about the whys and hows, so it was best if he just kept things simple. "It's basically a special-power that let's us fight against the Shadows." He paused, "...You might be a Persona-User too."

"How so?" Minato tilted his head.

"It's because you're awake right now. Normal people are asleep during the Dark Hour but people with the potential to summon a Persona don't transform."

Oh, Minato had heard about something similar from Gnarl. So he was a Persona-User because he was awake during the Dark Hour? Then did Gnarl and the rest of the Minions have the potential to summon a Persona as well? He would have to get a clarification on that later. For now, he asked another question. "How does someone summon their Persona?"

Akihiko removed the gun-like object from his holster and rested it on his palm so that the girl could have a clear view of it. "We use this; it's called an Evoker."

Well, Minato had most or less already figured that part out by himself, but it was nice to have a name for the device. Since Gnarl had asked Minato to summon his Persona, he had inkling that his Gauntlet might have been some type of evoker-type device as well. The important question was figuring out the method to trigger his Gauntlet and therefore his Persona...

Deciding that they had rested long enough, Akihiko urged them on, "Come on, let's get out of here. There's a village nearby and we can find shelter there."

Minato nodded his head but he idly wondered what he should do about Gnarl and the Browns. He wasn't really worried about them but he was still their Overlord — even if he didn't exactly choose that occupation. Well, whatever, he'd crossed that bridge when it comes.

They started to walk away.

Is was then the knives struck from above.

Minato had managed to avoid a hit from sheer luck once more but Akihiko was not as lucky as he suffered a wound on his right arm and two on his left leg.

Akihiko clicked his tongue as his back hit a tree. Gazing down upon them was the Frowning Shadow, elongated arms interlinked together which lifted it up high above the canopy like some twisted spider. _'How the hell did this thing sneak up on us?!'_ He didn't waste any time and fired his Evoker. "Don't mess with me!" Bang.

His Persona appeared and cast a healing-spell on his bleeding arm and leg. Immediately afterwards, it zapped the Shadow with a lightning-spell and the multi-limbed entity writhed in pain before it turned slump. Wasting no time, Akihiko put distance between him and the Shadow and ordered his Persona to attack with another bolt of electricity. "Zio!" Another good hit; though, the attack shocked the Shadow out of its daze.

He attempted to pummel the Shadow up-close-and-personal but his injured leg suddenly gave out on him.

Akihiko clicked his tongue, sweating with a ragged breath, as he fell to a knee. Dia was enough to stop the bleeding but not completely seal up the wounds. If he ran, the wounds on his legs would open right back up. Retreat was no longer an option for him. _'But what about her?!'_ The blue-hair girl could still escape, it was better than the both of them getting killed here. "Minato! The village is that way; run away now!"

Minato thought on the contrary. He would rather stay and fight than leave and let someone sacrifice themselves for him. Something else was also bubbling inside him, threatening to overflow; some sort of primal instinct which urged him to have a fight-to-the-death against the Shadow...

At that moment, the Shadow snapped back to action. Its frowning mask tilted downward to glare at Akihiko. Several arms lashed out at the immobile Persona-User but Minato was quick on his feet as he tackled the boy aside. The knives hit dirt but a strong tugged was enough to get them out.

Akihiko grunted, "What the heck do you think you're doing?!" but Minato did not bother to answer.

"CHAARRRGGEEEEE!"

From out of the woods, the Browns appeared and started taunting the Shadow as they ran amok.

"STUPIT SPIDUR, WE CRUSH YU!"

"NEH NEH NEH NEH NEH! I'MZ OVAR HEAR!"

"YOUZ NOT SO TUFF!"

Seeing them come back for him almost brought a smile to Minato's face. Almost. He was still a bit miff that they had chosen the hive over him. But a diversion was always welcomed.

Meanwhile, Akihiko was just plain confused. "Where the heck did these goblins come from?!"

"NUT GOBBLE-LIN!" one of the Browns corrected him with a mad face, "WE MINIONS! HEHEHEHEH!"

He frowned at the retort since he would rather not argue back at the not-goblins. Now wasn't exactly a good time.

The Shadow did not register the Minions' presence as anything more than minor nuisances. It kept focus on Akihiko. The large Shadow attempted to splice him apart once more but Minato tackled him to safety again. The silver-hair man did not appreciate being treated like a rag-doll.

With the knives momentarily stuck in the ground, Minato assumed this was the best opportunity for the Minions to strike. "Attack!" he ordered.

They were _very_ eager to please.

"WOO-HHHOOOOO!"

"FOR THE OVERLORD!"

"YEEAAAHHHH!"

With an agility and coordination that seemed out-of-place for these mob-like creatures, they rushed and climbed up the Shadow's many limbs. A good number of the Minions were able to latch themselves on before the Shadow pulled back its arms.

"DIE! DIE! DIIIEEEEE!"

"TAKE TIZ ANH DAT!"

The Shadow was instantly annoyed by the Minions' antics and furiously swung its arm to throw them off. A few where sent flying off into the distance with shrill screams of terror.

Minato turned to Akihiko, "Can you shoot another one of those lightning?"

"...Sure," he replied. In his current injured state, there really wasn't much else for him to do besides shoot himself in the head and call down the thunder. "Zio!" The bolt struck dead-on. Because some of the Shadow's supporting limbs were in-use, the electrical-spell caught the thing off-guard and caused it to crumple to the ground. Falling, careening, dropping... right on top of them! "Oh sh-" Minato was quick to tackle him out of the way. Irritatingly, Akihiko wondered if that was going to be a thing; he hoped not. Once the almost-naked girl got off him, he cast Dia on his aggravated wounds.

The Minions had the good instinct of jumping off the Shadow before it crashed onto the earth with a boom.

The Shadow was listless but it was not dead. Minato stared at its frowning-mask. Once more, he felt some unknown familiarity about it and the urge to kill it as well. But another instinct was mixed with the two, this new instinct told him to devour the Shadow. These feelings... where or what exactly were they coming from?

The Shadow shuddered. Though the expression of its mask did not change, it was easy to sense that the Shadow was now aware and alert.

Minato believed that the battle had gone on for long enough. Figuring out how to trigger his Gauntlet would take time, time he did not yet have. He turned to Akihiko and pointed at the Evoker, "Can I borrow that?"

"What? Why?"

"Didn't you say that I might have a Persona?"

"Yeah, I did, but..." Akihiko was apprehensive at lending his only means of attack and defense. Sure, he was starting to run low on mana and couldn't keep on going for long, but giving the fight to a might-be-able-to-summon-their-Persona amateur wasn't a good idea to him. The Shadow began to tremble as it started to lift itself off the ground, Akihiko wasted no time in summoning Polydueces which delivered a Sonic Punch to the Shadow's mask. A crack formed. "Yes!" he pumped his fist; it was a critical-hit.

Everything seemed to be going alright.

But then the Shadow got _angry_.

Its expression morphed; the frowning mouth opened up in screaming terror, the dark eyes sunk into the depths, exaggerated wrinkles and creases appeared; the mask which could once be called 'mild disappointment' was now 'frozen fear'. Subtly, the arms tightened and slightly bulked up as they gained more definition to their texture.

Akihiko gasped, "What the?!" He had never seen a Shadow do this before.

The Shadow reverted back to its other form of chaos, limbs placed and angled whichever way. Faster than it was before, the arms seemed to stretch on forever as they struck with near pin-point accuracy. The Minions were easily cut-in-two and their numbers dwindled to zero with every short scream. Akihiko barely avoided the same fate with his Persona protecting him, meanwhile Minato had suffered a nasty cut along with a rough haircut but was no worst for wear.

However, the two of them were now separated.

They had no time to worry about that.

The assault was wild and relentless. Jabs, stabs, and thrusts were rained down upon them. Akihiko blocked and Minato dodged, but the pressure was on them; they were losing ground every second and getting further away from each other.

Eventually, Akihiko let loose a scream and spasmed when Polydueces' rock hard defense finally fell — three knives pierced through it. Feeling the phantom-pain through his Persona, he dropped unconscious. With Akihiko unmoving, the Shadow was content to move on and focused its attack on Minato. It was only a small fortune that the silver-hair man still lived but now the New Overlord had to deal with all the arms aimed at him!

No Minions to use as a distraction, Akihiko was down and out, and the angry Shadow was single-mindedly pursuing him.

...This situation undoubtedly sucked.

Could this get any worst?

Maybe not.

The Shadow burst into flames as two somethings leapt out from the woods. One was a young female with bright auburn hair tied into a high-ponytail, evoker in one hand and a halberd in the other, she had the same armband as Akihiko. Floating in front of her was most likely her Persona; it had a golden body adorned with white limbs, a red cowl covering up its bright auburn hair, and a heart-shaped harp was holstered on its back.

"Tarunda!" the girl shouted and her Persona acted with a smooth strum of its harp; the spell or music caused the Shadow's knives to suddenly become chipped and dull.

The Frowning Shadow took one look at its weapons and then switched targets immediately. The knives glowed red-hot as fire enveloped their blade. The newcomer grinned and shot Minato a quick glance and this-is-your-chance-to-get-away nod, she reholstered her evoker and moved the battle elsewhere.

Minato was thankful for the girl's timely intervention but he did not run away. He ran towards Akihiko and plucked the man's evoker off the ground. Time seemed to slow as he raised the gun to his head. Something from within him began to rise to the surface. From the Sea Of Souls, a name revealed itself.

A smile threatened to rip his face in half...

_Tha-_

_-Na-_

_-Tos_

...the trigger was pulled with a glass-shattering bang.

* * *

**Author Notes**

This is probably one of the kookier ideas that I've written.


	2. Thou Art I, Frown No More

**Send In The Fool**

Chapter Two

_[Summon A Persona And Get A Headache]_

__Thou_Art_I_Frown_No_More__

* * *

Mitsuru Kirijo had her eyes closed as she laid on her chair.

To an outsider it would seem as if she was resting. But, in truth, she was currently using her Persona's sensory-ability to keep track of the situation around the village. She opened her eyes and called out for two of her comrades, "Akihiko, Yukari." They turned their heads to look at her. "An extremely powerful Shadow has shown up at the outskirt of Spree. I'm afraid to say that I cannot tell what it is doing but — judging by its behavior — it seems to chasing someone."

"You can't tell?" Akihiko raised a brow.

"No. I don't know why but the area around the Shadow is distorted. I can figure out the general location it is in but I am blind to everything else within that space."

He frowned, "That's one troublesome Shadow."

She nodded her head, "I want the two of you to go out and assess the situation. Don't do anything else but observe; the Shadow is too dangerous for the two of you to fight."

Neither Akihiko nor Yukari were excited to hear that.

"...I got it," the silver-hair man sighed in slight disappointment.

"R-Right," Yukari nodded with a frown.

Akihiko lazily waved, "Come on, Yukari, let's go."

"Okay..."

[...]

Keeping watch on the pair form afar, Mitsuru frowned when they entered the Shadow's territory. It took a bit more effort for her to keep track of their presence. However, she became more displeased when she noticed that Yukari was heading back to the village while Akihiko had darted further in — most likely to fight the Shadow.

She was _so_ going to give him a verbal-scolding when he got back...

At that moment, a sweating Junpei Iori slammed opened the door and disturbed her concentration.

"Mitsuru, the Halflings are attacking! They've got Trolls!"

_'Of all the time for them to attack, it had to be now?'_ Mitsuru swiftly rose form her seat. With a quick sweep, she sensed that the Halflings had brought a sizable army to attack Spree. She put a hand to chin and strategized. "We're spread thin..." she mumbled to herself. Spree had the advantage of playing defensively but with only herself, Junpei, and Kotone, it was not going to be an easy battle.

They had some Potential-Users who could help hold the line but the offense was essentially limited to three versus many.

The only good news was that Yukari was already making her way back to the village.

With sharp eyes, she looked at him.

"Junpei, go and form three groups to patrol the village, we don't want any of the Halflings to sneak in."

"Got it!"

"Wait," She stopped him from running out and he paused mid-step, "Junpei, you're on stand-by. Yukari is on her way back and I want you to be ready to let her back in the moment she arrives."

Junpei frowned, standing around and waiting was not cool, but he knew that now was not the right time to be arguing with the boss, "Right." He ran out of the room and got on with his assigned task.

[...]

Mitsuru wasted no time and headed for the front-lines at the eastern-walls. There were some archers hiding behind cover along the walls or watch-towers but that was alright; halflings were small targets and trolls would shrug off the arrows; in this situation, they were better off being spotters than archer.

It was all up to the Persona-Users to prevent the enemy from breaking through.

Up in front, slinging fiery-death like there was no tomorrow, was Kotone Shiomi and her Persona Orpheus. Beyond their gated-walls was the halfling army; impatient Trolls ready to let loose, Halfling Spearmen in the back to keep their beasts-of-war from running amok, Swordsmen and Slingers hidden amongst overgrown grass or ruined buildings, and Captains with cobbled-up armor doing their best to be intimidating.

The fear of being roasted to death kept the halfling-army at bay. Sooner or later, though, they would probably lose their temper and charge in with everything they had. Strategy was not their strong suit and it was a tactic they often used: overwhelming their opponent through sheer numbers and audacity.

"TRROOOLLLL SHIT!" a man shouted with a pinched nose.

With a disgusting splat, a troll's balled-up piece of shit landed in front of the wall. Foul and most definitely sickening, the force it was thrown with could kill a man and the stench would have had most other running to heave.

It was a good thing then that trolls had terrible aim.

Kotone spotted the offending troll immediately. She crouched down to avoid the rocks being slung at her; when the last zipped by, she triggered her Evoker and jumped back up to re-ascertained the troll's position. Orpheus appeared and unleashed an Agi on the flabby-creature.

The troll groaned as it caught on fire, its unhealthy oily skin was highly flammable, and flailed about. The group of halflings meant to cover it ran away in a panic but a particularly unlucky one had gotten a fiery-whop to the face and barreled into two others.

All of a sudden, another group of halflings started to run out from the cover of a ruined house. They were screaming with arms flailing about in the air. Then a second and a third group followed the first in the mayhem.

The reason why was revealed soon enough: Shadows were spawning in their hiding-spots.

They were easily identified as the floating-head Tiara-types and the sludge-like Maya-types.

The defenders of Spree weren't quite as panicked as the halfling-army. They had expected the Shadows to show-up sooner or later; it was the Dark Hour, after all. It was still up in the air whether the intrusion by the Shadows was a good or bad thing for them, though.

The halfling-army scattered into chaos. The Captains were the first to high-tail it out of there and morale fell even further. The remaining Trolls got loose and easily crushed the Mayas around them but could not approach the fire-casting Tiaras. The few brave warriors who tried to cover their brethrens' retreating back were trampled for their effort. Those who were not fast enough to flee became prey to the Shadows' hunger for souls.

The defenders could no tear their eyes away from the carnage. More and more Shadows were popping out from the air or ground and they were sure to turn their attention to the humans once the halflings and trolls were all gone. The archers and spotters couldn't help but gulp in fear.

Even though Mitsuru had yet to see the scenes for herself, the noises said more than enough about what was going on beyond the walls of Spree.

She did not like what she was hearing and made a scan of the situation. She discovered that the amount of Shadows that had spawned were about a quarter-in-force to the halfling army's initial numbers. _'It's not normal to have so many Shadows spawn as once... are they riled up because of the one that appeared at the outskirts?'_ So many questions but so little answers; for now, those would have to wait.

Mitsuru announced her presence, "Situation report!"

The defenders cheered in delight at the presence of their boss.

At least one of them was good enough to remember her order. "Lady Kirijo, the Shadows have devastated the Halflings! We're next and there's almost a hundred out there and still growing in number!"

She nodded at the man before turning to her fellow Persona-User, "Kotone, we're going on the offensive! You handle the Mayas and I'll deal with the Tiaras."

The girl gave a mock-salute followed by the bang of her evoker. Orpheus carried its master down the wall and into the chaos below. Kotone immediately brandished her halberd with a twirl and dashed into the heat of battle, zipping through the burning chaotic field like a predator hunting prey.

Mitsuru headed for the top of their walls and summoned her Persona. Performing a quick scan and following with a Mabufu allowed her to sweep the eastern-gate clear of the Tiaras. It was less effective against the Shadows further out but the range of her spell was still far-reaching enough to provide assistance to Kotone.

The halberd-wielding girl hacked and slashed her way through and let Orpheus finished off the weakened Mayas; any Tiaras that she could not avoid were injured and then lured into Mitsuru's range. Their teamwork was impeccable and their individual skills were top-notch; they knew how to pace themselves well.

However, despite making short-work of the Shadows, Persona-Users were still only human and their stamina and endurance only went so far.

After demolishing a good half of the Shadows' current numbers, Mitsuru believed that her best-friend had worked hard enough and that it was time for the girl to rest. Icing the latest batch of Tiaras, she then called out to her comrade, "Kotone, fall back to the village!"

It was at this moment that goods news arrived in the form of Junpei and Yukari.

On the other hand, Yukari herself was the bearer of bad news.

"Mitsuru!" the girl cried out, "We found a huge Shadow chasing after someone and Akihiko is going to try to lure over here! He wants everyone to be ready to attack!"

Mitsuru closed her eyes and calmly exhaled, _'This could not have come at a worst time...'_ She gestured her hand out in a familiar manner and the people around her recognized that as the signal for them to not bother and break her concentration. She recollected her thoughts to assess the situation. _'I need more information.'_ She scanned for Akihiko and the Shadow; she was not surprised to sense that the Shadow was now uncomfortably closer to the village than it was before, but her senses on Akihiko noted that he was barely-to-not moving from his spot. Why? When he continued to hold his ground, she had the sinking feeling that Akihiko was seriously injured.

The situation went from 'bad' to 'worst'.

She and Kotone needed rest, Akihiko was immobile for whatever reason, and Junpei and Yukari were still too inexperienced for solo-missions. Meanwhile, they still had to deal with the army of Shadows at their front and maybe even the dangerously powerful Shadow at their back...

_'If only Shinjiro was here to help...'_ She let that moment of weakness pass-by before opening her eyes. She was the boss here and contemplating 'What Ifs' was of no use to anybody. She hated it but she had hard decisions to make.

"Junpei and Yukari, you two are with me," she turned around to face her best-friend, "Kotone, Akihiko is in trouble with a high-level Shadow and he might be injured. Keep the Shadow distracted until the Dark Hour is over," she pointed a finger, "Head that way, you'll find them in the nearby forest."

The auburn-hair girl nodded and was about to go when she was interrupted by a worried Yukari.

"Ah, Kotone, wait! As far as I saw, the Shadow has multiple arms and knives. Getting in a melee fight seems really dangerous, so you should be careful and keep your distance from it."

"Thanks for the info!" Kotone smiled appreciatively and then swiftly went on her away.

Despite their own massive numbers, the Shadows beyond the eastern-gate had been mildly deterred by the presence of the four gathered Persona-Users. However, there were now only three left, so the Shadows could be expected to soon start their attack in force once more.

_'We'll be ready for them,'_ Mitsuru thought as she quickly barked out orders.

[...]

Kotone Shiomi traveled as fast as Orpheus could carry her. Upon reaching the forest, she dismissed her Persona, and then moved as fast as her legs could sprint.

She hoped that she would reach Akihiko in time...

But then the familiar voice of her comrade rang out from within the forest. It was a scream.

Her mind blanked out for moment but she still urgently continued toward the source of the sound. Before she revealed her presence, she made a quick note of the situation.

Just as Yukari described, the Shadow had many arms and half of them were holding onto knives, its mask was slightly cracked with a perpetual frown and — contrary to its tangled-up appearance — it had no trouble moving about. Its current target was some girl with blue hair, ignoring the fact that she was barely covered up, the stranger was otherwise completely fine as she dodged the knives aimed at her with amazing skill.

Then she noticed Akihiko's unmoving form...

Kotone swiped her evoker off her belt and fired. Orpheus appeared and the two of them leapt into the fray; immediately, the Persona struck the Shadow with Agi. Next she shouted, "Tarunda!" and her Persona followed up with the weapon-dulling spell.

The Shadow's knives lost their edge and parts of them had chipped away. It was not pleased with the sudden interference. Flicking the knives with its wrist, the blades were suddenly covered in flames.

Kotone shot the girl a tiny grin and then retreated; hopefully the stranger would take Akihiko and make a run for it. Whatever the case, the Frowning Shadow was chasing after her and not them, so it was all good. Though, things would be better if the freaking Shadow could just trip up and die in a ditch somewhere...

She led the huge Shadow to one of the now-abandoned settlements that dotted Mellow Hills. By the looks of it, it wasn't really a village but more like it had been a rest-stop for travelers. But, at this point, whatever it used to be didn't really matter anymore.

In the end, this town was merely a grave-marker.

Kotone threw out the plan and apologized to her boss. She wasn't going to let the Shadow escape along with the Dark Hour. Only one of them was going to get out of this encounter alive.

Orpheus dropped her off on top of one of the roofs but the buildings made no difference to the Shadow as it crawled and crushed all over them.

She twirled her halberd, then tightly brought it to the fore, her body-stance was angled for an attack. The amount of bloodlust she emitted made even the Frowning Shadow pause with wary. There was silence as they stared at one another.

A mysterious smile danced on her lips.

If someone asked, she would have said that she did it because one of her friends had been hurt. But the truth was much more selfish: she just wanted to cut loose.

Her smile before split into a cheshire-grin.

"Let's have a bloody-fun fight!"

[...]

The trigger was pulled with a glass-shattering bang.

Glittering fragments of his soul and will swirled around him as his Persona materialized.

The white gloved arms clenched tight as the black body formed. The back of its shoulders had metal protrusions that were linked to eight floating-coffins. On its waist was a long sheathed-sword. And its face could not be clearly seen because of the menacing skeletal-helm. With a bellow of triumph, the fully-materialized Persona announced its arrival to the world.

The two locked eyes and stared into the depths of the other side...

They reached an understanding: '_Thou art I and I am Thou_'.

Minato softly chuckled. Every time he had looked at the Frowning Shadow, he had developed the sudden urge to destroy and devour it... now he understood where those feelings were coming from. It was coming from his other-self, his Persona. Those feelings, which were once so strange, now felt so normal.

For a moment, they simply basked in the peace and quiet comfort of the others' presence.

It was as if two long-lost friends had finally reunited.

_'That might truly have been the case,'_ Minato mused. He had no memories but the possibility remained that he and Thanatos had been old partners. "Oh," he blinked, he had almost lost himself to the atmosphere. There were things that still had to be done before he could finally relax.

Giving a silent thanks, he returned the evoker to Akihiko and laid the silver-hair man to rest on a tree. Minato didn't need the device anymore as he was certain that he could summon his Persona without it now.

In fact, he dismissed Thanatos and started the test right now.

He activated The Gauntlet with a mental-command; which in turn, pulled on the complex-system responsible for magic in the human body; from there, he traced the source back to the conceptual-circuit known as the mindscape; after which, he gently cut opened the boundary and allowed the metaphorical-sea to flow out and... this should make... his Persona appear again!

Thanatos imposed itself on reality and rematerialized with another triumphant roar.

Minato gripped a hand to his head and breathed out. It was a success; he finally figured out how to trigger his Gauntlet and summon his Persona! It was a lot more difficult to bring out his Persona using The Gauntlet as a trigger but time and practice should eventually improve on that.

Minato cheekily smiled at his Persona, "As a reward, I think I'll treat myself to a hair-cut."

Thanatos scoffed at the idea but obliged anyways. In a flash, his Persona cleanly cut his hair; what once reached his thighs, now only fell up to his shoulders. He brushed his hair back and thought it was much more manageable now, though it could still be shorter.

With that out of the way, it was time to deal with the Frowning Shadow.

For all the trouble it had given him, he owed it one hell of a beating.

Thanatos growled in agreement; it was time to dish out some payback.

As soon as Minato wondered how to find the Shadow, his hovering Persona scooped him up into a princess-carry then jumped high over the trees and into the air. Flying? That was going to be a very useful ability for getting around.

Minato soon found that he did not enjoy the rapid flapping of his ragged cloak nor did he enjoy the stale but cold air brushing against his skin... There also wasn't much to say about the scenery which flew-by besides it being an indistinct green blur.

Eventually, Thanatos slowed down, descended back to the earth, and dropped him off near a town.

The settlement had seen better days.

A Shadow and Persona-User rampaging inside of it only added to that observation.

It was difficult to gauge who was winning as both of them were pretty beat-up. The girl with the high-ponytail had numerous bleeding cuts, her outfit was getting dangerously close to shredded, and her halberd had been chopped short. The Frowning Shadow was doing little better with its broken fingers, worn-out knives, the fractured mask, and slime-bleeding arms.

However, between the two, only the girl remained confident, which was shown by the manic grin sported on her face.

Minato decided that she could use a helping hand.

"Thanatos," he called.

His Persona responded immediately. There was no way it was going to let someone else steal away its prey.

The coffin-clad Persona shot upward into the sky before shooting downward. It rammed the Shadow through the building that it was standing on and straight into the ground with a tremendous impact. Debris and dust flew into the air.

The girl blinked in surprise and started to look around. She spotted Minato and sent him a 'I-had-this-under-control' glare but then just sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

Thanatos stood over its opponent squirming body... No, it _completely_ towered over its opponent which had shrunk back in fear. The menacing Persona roared directly at the Shadow's face and struck it with a mask-splintering headbutt. It pummeled the Shadow into a pulp with lightning-speed punches before tearing away its hands and arms with sickening squelches. Once its white-gloves were stained black, Thanatos switched attacks. With a cruel laugh, it stole the Shadow's knives and used them against it.

Like a surgeon-gone-mad, the Persona chopped, cut, and carved, on and on and on and on...

Minato wondered if he should have gotten in one final punch but soon recalled that — even when he was being chased — he had felt minor annoyance at the worst and not once did he fear for his life. He could have gotten a hit in for Akihiko but he was certain that the auburn-hair girl had already done that. There was also the Minions but their deaths seemed both expected and deserved — because, yes, he was still miffed at being abandoned the first time around.

No, he supposed that he didn't have a reason get a punch in.

By the end of his contemplation, the Frowning Shadow had been reduced to little more than a mask.

His Persona gored the empty-sunken eyes with its thumbs, the sockets oozed out a bright-red substance which soon began to leak from every crack... then Thanatos pulled. The mask was torn in two and the Persona roared in satisfaction. But, as if to add further insult, Thanatos slammed the two halves of the mask together with forceful strength and speed. They shattered upon collision, the pieces crumbling in the air, and disappeared like ash in the wind.

The night was now silent...

With the Shadow dead, Minato turned his attention to the auburn-hair girl who had walked up to him. She looked different than how she looked a few moments ago, like an entirely different person. The aura of bloodlust and battle-hungry tension was all gone, replaced by a more cheerful and approachable atmosphere.

He briefly mused if the girl possibly had a split-personality. But soon figured that he didn't mind at all. If her quirk wasn't directed at him then there was no need to make a fuss about it.

"Hey, I'm Kotone Shiomi," the girl introduced herself, "And you are?"

"Minato Arisato."

"How's Akihiko? He's not hurt bad, is he?"

He shook his head, "No, just resting."

She placed a hand to her chest, "Phew! That's great."

The conversation died soon after. They stared at one another and waited for the other to speak but neither of the two felt like starting a conversation. They soon stopped looking at the other as it was getting somewhat awkward; for Minato, it was because Kotone's clothes were very close to falling off; and for Kotone, it was because Minato's clothes were barely decent.

Eventually, they just came up with an excuse to leave.

"I gotta go check on Akihiko," the girl stated first.

Minato merely nodded, glad that he didn't have to give his excuse. He had wanted to see how Gnarl and the Browns were doing but he didn't want to explain the whole 'New Overlord' thing, so he kept his mouth shut.

With nothing left to be said, the two of them parted ways.

[...]

Once again, Thanatos carried him through the sky. And, once again, he did not enjoy it.

His grumbling was short-lived, however.

The Dark Hour ended and the world returned to normal.

Everything should have been fine but Minato was struck with an unexpected increase of pressure. He groaned, hands clutching his head, as his face scrunched up in pain. Thanatos quickly returned to the ground and Minato stumbled out of its arms before returning it to his Sea Of Souls.

He fell to his knees and threw-up; he idly noted that he had yet to eat or drink anything since his awaken, so his barf was rather clear. He panted as he walked away and wiped his mouth.

"So, keeping a... Persona materialized... costs more..." he weakly mumbled to himself, his mind clouded and his heading pounding.

Minato really wished that someone would have told him beforehand that trying to keep or summon a Persona outside of the Dark Hour was apparently three-times or more taxing. Thanatos needed way too much mana to sustain its existence. He moaned because of his sudden exhaustion.

His head started lolling and his vision was going blurry.

_'...So sleepy...'_

He vaguely registered voices coming his way such as "HERE! HERE!" or "FUND DA MASTUR!".

In his current state, he merely grumbled and questioned why things were so noisy or why was it so difficult to get some peace and quiet?

_'...Please... shut... up...'_

Minato hit the cool and grassy ground and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**Author Notes**

Kotone Shiomi comes with two basic settings: 'Happy!' and 'Really Happy!'.

Minato Arisato comes in two loving flavors: 'Do I Have To Deal With This?' and 'Deal With It'.


	3. Ten Year Mysteries

**Send In The Fool**

Chapter Three

_[Welcome To Spree And Have All This Information Dumped On]_

__Ten_Year_Mysteries__

* * *

A dream flickered by or was it a memory...?

Down, down, and down, into the chasm below, he fell.

A sick crunch and spurt marked the landing.

Death embraced him and-

[...]

Minato's eyelids slow twitched open as he shielded his eyes from the sunlight. He heard gasps of "Oooh!" and "Ahhh!" around him. After rubbing his eyes cleaned, he looked at his surroundings.

He was in a small room that contained only a window, a bed, a chair, and a mirror on the wall. Occupying the room with him was Gnarl and a handful of Brown Minions. It wasn't difficult to notice that one of the minions was whistling quite suspiciously with hands behind their back...

There was a few questions that he wanted to ask about but he had more important priorities than doing that. He put a hand to his stomach as it growled and licked his dried lips.

"Is there anything to eat around here?"

The Minion Master sent him a raised a brow, "Milord, allow me to explain our current situation first. After you fell unconscious, the Minions and I led the Persona-Users to you and then brought you over to their village. For now, they've reluctantly granted us temporary sanctuary..." Gnarl shook its head, "I hate to admit it but we have no resources of our own, Sire. You should think very wisely about what you want to do because we may need to _compromise_ with these fools to survive," and began to lament, "Oh! If only the Dark Tower did not turn into a sprawling nest of Shadows every night! We could have ruled the Middle-Domains from its loft and avoid mingling with the rabble..."

Filing that bit about the Dark Tower for later, Minato thought that teaming-up sounded like a pretty damn good deal. He might have been a bit bias but a roof over his head and assistance from other Persona-Users sounded much better than living on the run from the Shadows every night.

Anyways, Minato decided that he had heard enough of Gnarl's rambling.

Food now. Politics later.

Atop the chair's seat were what appeared to be a pile of folded-clothing, at the base were sandals, and the back had a blazer draped over it. Wonderful! Finally, some real clothes to wear. He was warming up even more to the idea of teaming-up with the other Persona-Users. He didn't see The Gauntlet anywhere but he suspected that Gnarl was holding onto it. "Turn around," he ordered the Minions.

"YEZ, SAR!"

After making sure the last Minion were facing the walls, Minato dragged himself out of bed and made a grab for the garments. But he soon froze after picking up the first triangular piece. "Gnarl..." he calmly called. His face as stoic as usual, though his lips almost developed a downward twitch.

"Yes, Milord?" The Minion Master's voice was falsely sweet and hint of snickering could be sensed. "Is something the matter?"

"...Who are these clothes for?"

"You, Milord," it replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "I had tried requesting armor befitting of an Overlord but they refused and supplied us with that civilian-attire instead." It mused out loud, "...Though, being underestimated does have its advantages, but — seeing as you are the Overlord — we should be acquiring a more intimidating wardrobe for you, post-haste..."

Armor-flarmar-smalmor-dskhakjd-WHATEVER! Forget about that! Minato was still focused on the stuff in front of him. His appreciation for the other Persona-Users took a drop as he returned the triangular-piece back to the chair.

"Me?"

"You."

"...These are _women's_ clothing."

"Indeed, Milord."

"..."

"Oh!" Gnarl chuckled, he was definitely having fun with whatever joke that he was apparently privy to, "Do you recall when I said you had suffered a near-fatal accident, Milord?" He nodded. "Yes, well, about that... you fell and went splat." What? "You were mostly still intact but we may have missed a few pieces..." Wat? "You were actually dead for a few seconds, so we were in a hurry to start your treatment." Wot? "You might have lost your memories but surviving death has a tendency to do that from time to time, Sire." Wut? "Nothing to worry about, it's a common problem amongst heroes and villains."

When Gnarl stopped talking, Minato realized that the old minion still hadn't explained why the villagers had given him women's clothing. It was sort of nice to know what caused his memory-lost but that wasn't important right now. Women's clothing! Why women's clothing?! He was glaring pretty hard at the back of the Minion Master's head.

Whether it was because the New Overlord's stare was becoming overbearing or because it sensed danger, Gnarl spoke up once more.

"Milord, there is an old-saying that a picture is worth a thousand words... The answer to your question lies within the mirror!"

Minato felt a chill down his spine. _'Is Gnarl saying what I think it's saying...?'_ The full-body mirror was somewhere behind him. The idea was rather farfetched but he was still a little hesitant. Eventually, though, he turned around and had a look... Oh. His hair was reaching his thighs again. Was this going to be a thing? Cutting it everyday would be annoying. He didn't like long hai-

"Milord, it's not good to shy away from reality."

No! You just don't understand, Gnarl! If Minato stared hard enough at the mirror, his reflection should eventually come to life and surprise him by revealing its true nature as his evil-doppelganger from the Nega-Verse an- _'She needs some clothes.'_ Calmly, ever so calmly, Minato shut down his brain and switched to automatic. He turned away and began to dress himself; it did not take him very long to put on the underwear, the white-and-orange one-piece dress, the stylish but slightly oversized black blazer, and the sandals.

He returned to the mirror. The emotionless girl with long-blue hair and cool-grey eyes stared back at him; the simple outfit looked rather good on her and for a moment he thought she was pretty cute. He mechanically brought his hands to cover up his face. Ah. His brain rebooted itself as his face turned beet-red and his body lightly trembled.

_'The girl in the mirror... is me.'_

Slowly, Minato, with a wry smile on her face, lowered her hands and examined her reflection without looking away. She recalled her completely naked form from just moments ago. The body was slender, the breasts weren't well developed, the face was rounder, the neck had no apple, and the sword and hilt between the legs were now a sheath. From every angle, Minato's body was physically female.

_'Have I always been a girl but didn't realize it until now..?'_

No, that couldn't be possible.

Minato had been a guy in the Velvet Room; though she had not memories, she had accepted that appearance as correct. Even the Minion Master had referred to Minato as male when she had first awaken.

Her hand touched the mirror's surface.

So when did 'He' become a 'She'?

That was easy enough to figure out. For the Minato who had been male and for the Minato who was now female, what was the single thing which connected the ten-year gap that between them? The coffin. The person known as Minato Arisato had been asleep and recovering inside a coffin for ten years; somewhere within that time period was when the transformation had taken place.

But why? What caused it?

She turned around to face Gnarl when it spoke up, "Sire, before you get any strange ideas in your head, I must inform you that the Cold-Coffin's only function is to slowly heal injuries. Changing the patient's gender is not a function." Something clicked in the Minion Master's mind, "Oh! But that would certainly be a fun device for humiliating our foes...Heheheh..."

Minato mentally frowned. _'Right, Gnarl didn't expect it either...'_

If it wasn't an intended feature, then what? Did the Minions mess something up during the process?

"Sire, have some more faith in I, your most loyal servant," it almost sounded offended, "I am always well aware of the orders I give and the actions I take." Still facing the wall, the Minion Master continued speaking, "The Cold-Coffin can heal the most grievous of wounds when given time. As long as your brain, heart, and more than fifty-percent of your body is retrieved, then there is no injuries that it cannot regenerate!" Except for more memory-loss, apparently. "Nothing's perfect, Milord," Gnarl coughed at its hand, "The Cold-Coffin has been used by many of your predecessors and not once has your peculiar case occurred. I assure you, Master, that the cause of your change lies neither with we Minions nor the Coffin."

Not because she was originally female, not because of a quirk of the coffin, and not because the Minions had made a mistake... If not those then what else? The cause would have to be found in the time before Minato Arisato's tragic accident. A time that she had no memories of...

"Unfortunately, Milord, the most I know about the past-you is from hearsay. Unless it was a major battle, you and your predecessor did not meet often, as you both had other matters to attend to."

So many questions and not enough answers...

Minato felt a little light-headed from all the thinking and went to sit on the bed. Her stomach grumbled._ 'Right, I'm starving...'_ She returned to the original subject, "Is there anything to eat around here?"

"Yes, Sire, there's a tavern on the floor below us."

_'A tavern, huh?'_ She briefly considered the idea of getting dead-drunk but decided against it. It was still day-time and dealing with the hang-over was not something she wanted. Especially now because of her 'why-the-heck-am-I-a-girl?!' state, she wasn't sure what she would do if she lost her inhibition. The name of the game now was to keep calm and keep control. Before leaving to grab her breakfast, Minato approached the suspiciously-whistling Minion. "What are you hiding?"

The Brown quickly stuffed something into its mouth which caused its cheeks to puff, turned around — back straight, and refused to maintain eye-contact. It was like a kid caught with their hands in the cookie-jar. "NUF~TIFN!" Adorable, maybe. But innocent it was not.

"Spit it out. Now."

The Minion very reluctantly bleeehhhh'ed out the object and gingerly presented it to the New Overlord. She was momentarily confused because she wasn't sure what she was looking at; the clumped up thing had slobber all over it. The Minion unrolled the white wad and revealed what seemed to be... thigh-high stockings.

Wearing knickers was already bad enough, she was not going to wear stockings too!

"Keep 'em."

The Brown was _very_ happy to hear that.

She chose not to think about what the Minion was doing to the stockings while she had been asleep...

[...]

There was not much to say about the area outside her room. It was a regular corridor with doors and at its end was a stairway that led down. She took it and eventually wound up at the tavern-section of the building. There was nobody there besides a single person; a man with dark skin and a red headband; he was behind the counter, polishing up a beer-glass.

"My, oh, my!" the man blinked as he put the glass down and spread his arms wide open, "Blueberry, you're finally awake!" His voice was nice and deep. He tapped the counter, "Come on over and grab a seat. I'm gonna head on to the kitchen and rustle up some grub for ya, so just relax, I'll be back in a bit."

Minato walked over, sat down, and glossed over her new nickname. Her stomach growled again. The Browns took seats of their own and started pounding the counter while chanting for food. Gnarl seemed content to stand behind.

A few moments later, the bartender reappeared with a cup of water, "Ya must be thirsty," and gave it to her. He did a swell job at ignoring the Minions and then went straight back to the kitchen.

She slowly drank the liquid to moisten up her parched throat. There wasn't much to do besides wait around for the meal to come... and to think. However, there was no point in thinking about stuff because she had already done just that.

Still, she could not stop her mind from wandering.

Minato Arisato... who was that guy? She was curious about him. If compared to one another, how similar and different would they be? They were suppose to be the same person, yet she only felt that they shared the same name. It was not the ten-year gap nor the difference in gender that separated them, it was their life experiences that molded them. If Minato Arisato had retained his memories, how would he have reacted to the situation? ...She had a purely intellectual interest in knowing; she had no urge to retake the past and was more content to simply build the future.

_'I wonder how well he would have taken to being transformed into a girl?'_

If she could say so herself, she had adjusted to it quite well. She reasoned that the transition wasn't too jarring due to circumstances. As it were, she had less than a few hours of memories; minutes of that had been spent as a male in the Velvet Room but most were made in her unaware-then female body. If she had a stronger sense of identity, then she might have made a bigger ruckus about it. Otherwise, the entire experience was rather surreal.

Or maybe she was actually in denial and lying to herself. But would someone in denial even bring up that possibility?

_'...Best to stop thinking about it...'_

Fortunately for Minato, the bartender returned with her meal and another glass of water. Soup, bread, eggs, and pork was the selection. She said a quiet, "Thanks," and dug in; she idly listened to the bartender talk while she ate.

"Name's Archibaldamius Methuselah Wobbleboard the 3rd! It's a mouthful, I know. So, you can just call me Archie," he gave a teeth-revealing grin. The bread-stick was plenty bland and on the dry-side. "I run the tavern around these parts; the Salty Grit, it's my pride and joy!" The watered-down lamb soup was at least warm. "It's nice to see ya up and about, Blueberry! You've been asleep for two days, you know?" There wasn't much to say about the egg, though stuffing it into the bread was a slight improvement on both accounts. "Don't know where you came from but it's nice to have another Persona-User in the village. Maybe with six we'll finally be able to do something about those Halflings..." The pork was really greasy. "Well, anyways, stay here and enjoy your meal. I gotta go tell the Boss-Lady that you're awake now."

Archie left.

The Minions had their tongues out and were salivating as they eyed her food. Minato was starving, so she wasn't to give any to them. Though, that didn't seem to matter as they scrambled to lick the plates and bowls clean after she had finished eating. In her opinion, the meal wasn't bad but it was at least filling. _'Actually, it might be really bad...'_ As far as she knew, she had been asleep for ten-years and starving usually made any food taste better than usual...

The Minion Master took this moment to return The Gauntlet to her.

She didn't care much about what the Minions did until she should the shattering noises and began to quietly scold them with an evil-eye. The Minions whimpered but she wasn't going to let that distract her. _'How am I going to pay for this?'_ She didn't exactly have money on her.

"Master," Gnarl spoke up with sharp-calculating eyes, "Our hosts have arrived."

[...]

Minato focused her mind and quickly studied the people who walked in.

The first person was a young woman. She had long and dark-red hair with eyes that matched. She wore a white-blouse with a red-ribbon, a black skirt, black boots that nearly reached up the knee, and a rapier on her waist. She had an air of aristocracy about her, along with curves in all the right places. The moment she walked through the door, the young woman's eyes began to size-up Minato and she did the same to her.

Walking slightly behind but beside her was the halberd-wielding girl from last time. _'Cone-Knee She-Only or something,'_ Minato vaguely recalled. Auburn hair styled into a high-ponytail, Minato hadn't really noticed the bright red-eyes until now. She was dressed similar to the red-head, except with a black jacket over her shirt and loafers and socks for her leg-wear. The girl sent a wave and smiled.

The next person was a guy who was slightly taller than Minato. He wore a purple shirt under a black blazer, black pants secured by a silver belt, and black shoes; he also had a small chained necklace, a black cap, and was shouldering a large two-handed sword. Compared to Akihiko's sturdy-build, this guy was bit on the leaner side. His black hair was short and shaved and his grey eyes was sizing her up too. Minato felt distinctly uncomfortable as those eyes roamed all over her, _'...How creepy.'_ For some reason, her body tensed up and she sent him an angry glare. He got the message and averted his eyes.

After that was a girl with brown neck-length hair and brown eyes. Her attire was almost the same as Cone-Knee's. Though, her socks were black, she wore a different pink jacket, and had a heart-shaped choker; she had a bow in one hand and resting above her butt was a quiver. She had a number of emotions on her face but it wouldn't be wrong to identify her as wary and embarrassed. Her eyes avoided lingering on Minato for too long.

All of them had a red armband and an evoker holstered somewhere. It was a similar set-up to what Akihiko Sanada and Cone-Knee were wearing, so Minato figured that these other three were also Persona-Users.

Minato noted that Akihiko wasn't amongst them and wondered if his injuries were still affecting him._ 'Could I use the Cold-Coffin heal him?'_

Ever so sneakily, Gnarl whispered, "No can do, Milord. There is a cool-down period before the Cold-Coffin can be used again. Oh, and try not to die again, Milord. The Cold-Coffin requires a tremendous amount of mana to utilize, so we won't be able to bring you back if you expire once more." The Minion Master _had_ been awfully quick to abandon the artifact at the cave, so it probably was useless at the moment; though it was something to keep in mind about...

Beyond these four, another person walked in; a middle-aged man with long wavy brown hair, glasses, and a pleased look on his face.

Archie did not return. They had probably asked him not to, so that they could have some privacy.

Cone-Knee, the guy with the two-handed sword, and the girl with the bow sat themselves down on a table that wasn't too far but wasn't close by either. The middle-aged man and the young woman moved forward but still kept a respectable distance from Minato.

The young woman with red hair spoke first, "Good afternoon, I believe introductions are in order."

Minato nodded her head but Gnarl decided to speak up on its own, "My Master is a quiet individual, so I, Gnarl The Minion Master, will be speaking in her place." Well, as long as Gnarl didn't act too hostile, she supposed that it should be fine to let the Minion Master do the talking.

The woman contemplated that statement for a moment but acquiesced, "Very well." She started with herself, a hand on her chest, "I am Mitsuru Kirijo, the leader of SEES, which stands for Specialized Extra-hour Execution Squad."

The middle-aged man next to her casually raised a hand, he sounded polite and cheerful, "I'm Shuji Ikutsuki, the Director of SEES, though I don't do much thanks to Miss Kirijo," he winked, "I'm also the Mayor's Aide... it's hard work, you know? I sometimes can't help but feel like a _Maid_; Hahaha!"

Nobody else laughed at the pun bug someone did groan with displeasure. Gnarl was about ready to grumble but kept composed.

Mitsuru, as if she had heard nothing, continued introducing everyone else.

"I believe you've already met my Co-Leader, Kotone Shiomi." Minato nodded back as the girl waved again. "The person next to her, with the bow, is Yukari Takeba. She was the person responsible for taking care of you while you were unconscious," Yukari gave a wry acknowledgement at Minato; the New Overlord suspected the Minions had done something to affect the girl's mood so negatively... like, say, stealing her stockings or something of that nature... Minato spared a glance at the joyful stocking-sniffing Brown... Right, she was going to have to do something about that later... "And the person with the sword is Junpei Iori." The guy sent an apologetic smile and wave. "We have one more member, Akihiko Sanada, but he is still injured and resting."

With that all said, it was Gnarl's turn to act as the mouth-piece.

"...Yes, my Master finds your acquaintance a pleasure as well. She is most thankful for the generosity you have given," the old minion cleared its throat, "Now then, I'm sure you have many questions for the Overlord but those can be answered at another time. We're all very busy people, so why don't we just get down to business, yes?"

"Haha, you're quite right!" Shuji Ikutsuki clapped his hands, "We can get to know each other a little better later. Well then, I hope you won't mind if I'm little blunt with my words. Then, on the behalf of SEES, I would like to invite you to our group, Miss Overlord."

"Hoh? And what are the benefits to joining this SEES of yours?"

"Ah, right, the benefits, well..." the middle-aged man began to tick off his fingers, "As a member of SEES, you'll naturally have access to the very best armor and weapons that we can provide. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with room on-board will be provided for free at the Salty Grit. You'll also, of course, be paid weekly for services rendered."

Gnarl's eyes slightly narrowed, "And what _services_ do you expect my Master to render?"

"The members of SEES have a duty to protect Spree from the Shadows during the Dark Hour. Otherwise, helping the village during the normal hours is just volunteer-work."

The arrangement sounded quite alright with Minato. Free food, rooming, and equipment was more or less what she wanted at the moment. Not to mention that, outside of fighting Shadows, she could basically do things at her own pace. It was a pretty sweet deal. But what about the Minions?_ 'They're going to be a handful...'_ Overlord or not, she didn't exactly want to room with them.

Gnarl caught on easily enough, "Yes, my Master finds your terms quite agreeable... but what accommodations have been made for us Minions?"

Shuji Ikutsuki blinked, "Pardon?"

"My Master wishes to have her privacy and therefore a room of her own... but, as Minions, we would prefer to remain close-by."

"Well, I admit that the inn's rooms are rather small," the man casually crossed his arms, "But is there any real reason that you and your master can't share a room? Space is quite valuable in Spree and being a Persona-User isn't enough to get your master two rooms; that would just be preferential treatment."

Gnarl turned to Minato and displayed a light sneer, "Milord, it seems these people do not recognize your value. Nor do they have gratitude for you saving two of their own... We should leave and find somewhere that will actually appreciate your greatness, Sire!"

Most of the members of SEES frowned at the Minion Master's insult but Shuji Ikutsuki was mildly flustered as he pushed up his glasses.

"Let's not get too hasty now!" he speedily cleared his throat, "Depending on your skill-sets, you can earn a place of your own, so we might be able to work out some kind of arrangement. Um, so, what do you Minions have to offer?"

Gnarl returned its attention back to the human and was quite pleased with itself. "In one word it would be _destruction_."

"...Destruction?"

The Minion Master spared a glance at Minato, "Browns, Milord, are physical fighters. We specialize in breaking, smashing, crushing and so forth; when you need a hammer then the Browns are as blunt as you can get," its sharp eyes caught then Shuji Ikutsuki's gaze, "Destruction in other words."

The man refrained from gulping, "I see... but I don't see how th-"

"I seem to recall that your little village has a bit of a pest problem... Shadows and Halflings, was it? One could say that they are the nails that stick up, yes?"

Shuji Ikutsuki adjusted his glasses, "And you're the hammer; I see where you're going with this." He hummed and drummed his fingers, "...Right, by some time tonight, I can have the room across from Miss Overlord's free for your use."

"No," Gnarl instantly refuted, "We require somewhere roomier for our Hive."

In the background, Junpei Iori shouted his annoyance, while Yukari Takeba grumbled about the Minion Master's stinking attitude.

The Director Of SEES sighed, "You're not making this easy on me," he shrugged his shoulders in defeat and sighed again, "Finding a place, based on those conditions, on such short notice is..."

Gnarl opened its mouth to retort when Archie suddenly came out from the kitchen. "I've got an idea that might work out for us all!" It seems that he wasn't even suppose to be here as even the people of SEES were surprised by his appearance. The owner of the tavern looked to the old minion with a grin as he rubbed his hands together, "Ya see, the Salty Grit has quite the basement below her. Haven't used it in years, so its got plenty of room for ya Minions to run around in and the door is also big enough for that jiggly Hive of yours to pass through."

Gnarl raised a brow and stated simply, "There's a catch."

"Right there is but it's nothin' big, I assure you. Just a rat-infestation that needs taking care of."

Yukari Takeba squeaked in disgust and Mitsuru Kirijo did not sound pleased, "Rat infestation?"

Archie laughed wryly, he didn't quite meet the red-hair woman's narrowed gaze, "Haha! We can keep 'em Halflings and Shadows outta the village but those rats are sneaky vermin; I tell you, _sneaky_! Don't know where they came from but, by the time I realized that those rats had made a nest in my basement, there were too many for just me to handle, so I just left them alone in there." He went turned back to look at Gnarl, "If you Minions clear out the basement then it's all yours! So whaddya say?"

Minato, deciding that she had enough of being a silent fixture in the room, spoke up. As far as she was concerned, the discussion had gone on long enough and would go on even longer since the Minion Master seemed to be trying to squeeze their hosts dry. "Gnarl," she addressed sternly.

The Minion Master heard and understood her intent well enough, "Yes... the basement sounds _acceptable_... We'll take it."

Archie stopped rubbing his hands and grinned, "Great! Follow me. I'll show ya where the basement is and you can get started on sweepin' it clean of those rats!" He walked out of the building.

Gnarl bowed to Minato, "If you'll excuse me, Milord," and received an affirmative nod. It then called for the Browns, "Come along now. We have rats to exterminate."

The eager Minions skipped behind their Minion Master.

"XTEMERATE! HAHA!"

"I CANZ FINLY HAVE RAT HAT NAO?!"

"KILL! KILL!"

Gnarl and the Minions gleefully disappeared through the door.

[...]

There was a short silence before Mitsuru Kirijo took control of the situation.

The red-head approached Minato and put out a hand for pleasantries, "I would like to formally welcome you to SEES, Minato Arisato."

Huh, she didn't remember ever giving them her name... Oh wait, she had. Akihiko and Kotone knew her name, so they had probably mentioned it. With that small mystery solved, Minato shook the woman's hand, she noted that Mitsuru had a firm grip and her hand was rather soft. Or was Minato's own hand the one that was soft?

How confusing...

Shuji Ikutsuki nodded his smiling head, "Welcome aboard, ah," he paused, "Lady Arisato." The middle-aged man then faced Mitsuru, "Well then, if you'll excuse me, as the Mayor's Aide I do believe that I've been away from the Mayor's side for too long now. If I don't hurry back to work, people might start calling me the _Mayor's Aside_; hahaha!" Stifling his remaining laughter, the Director Of SEES gave one last nod and left.

Now, only five people were left in the room.

Mitsuru let go, "I must also apologize as I have business to attend to as well. However, you have only recently awaken, so please take your time to relax for today." With one casual nod, to both Kotone and Minato, she left.

Make that four.

Minato and Kotone were as silent as always and Yukari avoided bringing attention to herself. With a group like this, a conversation would be hard to start.

Luckily, Junpei Iori did not have such problems.

The hat-wearing guy raised a hand and smiled, "Yo! Name's Junpei Iori, in case you forgot." He got out of his seat and walked over to Minato. "As you can see," he briefly swung his two-handed sword around, "I'm the heavy-hitter of SEES, so whenever you need something killed, you can count on me!" Yukari rolled her eyes, while Kotone seemed amused. Junpei scratched the back of his head, "And sorry about staring at you earlier; was just wondering about how the newbie looked, that's all. So, uh, hey! Are you really, you know... _the_ Overlord?"

Minato was wondering when that would come up.

She had a vague idea from Gnarl's supremacy rant that the position of Overlord was rather infamous. Though it had become a thing of the past ever since the Shadows had started to roam about. It seemed odd that nobody had called her out on that earlier, so she was somewhat curious about what people thought about the Overlord these days.

She simply nodded.

"Wow," Junpei voiced in surprise but he was cheerful, "Like, seriously? That's... dude, I don't even know! Used to hear stories about how the Overlord was some big dude in scary armor." He shrugged nonchalantly, "Guess those stories were wrong, since you're so cute." He realized what he had just said but didn't try to cover himself up and his reddened cheeks were easy enough to spot.

Minato, ignoring the comment, clarified the boy's not-quite-right statement, "I'm the successor."

"Huh?" Junpei blinked and scratched his cheek, "O-Oh, right. Those were stories I heard back when I was just a kid, so you can't be that dude since you're around the same age as us." Now that he brought it up... Did the Cold-Coffin make her younger or did it stop her from aging while she was healing inside of it? Definitely something to ask about later on. Junpei continued, "So you his kid or something?"

Junpei Iori was certainly bringing up some good questions for Minato to think about.

Other than being the successor, was there any other connection between her and her predecessor? Where they parent and child? Siblings? Friends? Ugh, the mystery of Past Minato Arisato just kept piling up...

_'Should I tell them that I have no memories...?'_

Was her memory-lost a secret worth keeping? Maybe. The lack of memories wasn't a big deal to her but it was the sort of topic that people usually pitied or remained cautious around. She didn't want to be treated as fragile, so she thought it was best to skirt around the subject for now.

Like usual, Minato did not answer and remained stoic.

Junpei chuckled wryly, "Sorry. You don't need to tell me anything that you don't want to."

Minato internally sighed. If this kept up, she was going to be sitting around and doing a Questions And Answers session all day. She looked to Kotone with blank eyes that somehow conveyed a sense of pleading.

The girl with the high-ponytail, the kindred spirit that she was, managed to decipher Minato's gaze and rose from her seat, "Hey, June! Why don't we show Min around the village?"

Yes, going outside sounded like a great change of pace.

Wait.

...Min?

Just how many people in this place were going to give her nicknames?!

Yukari also got of her chair but was walking away, "Count me out," she said somewhat weary and headed upstairs.

Junpei frowned, "What's her problem?" he scratched his head but then shrugged and pocketed a hand, "Ah, whatever. A tour round the village? Sounds good, let's go."

The three of them soon departed.

[...]

Amongst the three, Junpei did most of the talking while Kotone pitched in every-so-often and Minato simply soaked in the knowledge.

They brought her everywhere of interest.

The Salty Grit which served as the base of operations for SEES. The Mayor's home which also housed a laboratory for research. The armory with its assortment of weapons and armors. The animal-pens and crop-fields. And the local market where all manners of things were gathered. Unhealthily packed tight with people and buildings, Spree was akin to a slum.

_'It could be far worse,'_ Minato idly thought to herself. At the least, she felt like she had lived through worst than this.

As the tour winded down, the three of them made way to the Salty Grit. On the walk back, Junpei started talking about the past. He wasn't the most informative source of information but he explained well enough for Minato to get the gist of things.

"Yeah," Junpei said, "I guess you could say that everything started around ten years ago..."

The Overlord had been defeated by the Seven Heroes and all should have been peaceful... But then the Lost began to appear — empty and lifeless, these suddenly afflicted-victims did nothing more than lay around and waited to die — their numbers kept growing and it was soon believed that a plague had swept into the Middle-Domains.

But nothing was as it seemed.

The Seven Heroes soon announced that the cause of the Lost was due to the mysterious Dark Hour which had appeared after the Overlord's defeat. Uncountable numbers of Shadows roamed free during this time and apparently fed on those too helpless to defend themselves. The people were fearful of such an intangible threat but believed that the Seven Heroes would protect them.

"And, you know what? They _did_ protect us for two years," Junpei growled with clenched fists, "But then they just _stopped_, turned their backs on all of us."

The Middle-Domains spiraled out of control.

_'...Did the Overlord create the Dark Hour?'_ Minato thought that the timing of the Dark Hour's appearance and her predecessor's defeat was too close to be just coincidental. Was it his way of getting back at the Seven Heroes? Or was there something more to it than that? She vaguely recalled that Gnarl once mentioned that the Seven Heroes had unleashed a greater evil upon the lands; accidentally or not, she couldn't tell. _'Is the Dark Hour that Greater Evil?' _

Junpei went on to talk about Spree.

"Back when I was a kid, Spree was a much nicer place than this; plain and simple but it was home, you know? ...But then everything went to shit because of those Seven Heroes, those asses didn't just abandon us... they turned around and attacked!"

Spree was neighbors with a halfling town called Hobbleshog, the home of Melvin Underbelly The Halfling Hero. When the Seven Heroes had turned away their backs, they had also gone as far as to attack to people they had once defended. The halflings went from friendly to gibberish-yelling assholes. It didn't help that the Lord Of Spree at that time had gone off to seclude himself to his castle and left the villagers to fend for themselves. The Lost from the Shadows and the attacks from the Halflings soon left the village on its last legs.

_'...What changed the Seven Heroes?'_ Their sudden hostility was clearly abnormal...

"You didn't need to be an adult to feel it in the air. People were just tired and it wouldn't have been weird if Spree just turned into a ghost-village at anytime..." Junpei's expression brightened up, "But then the Wanderer arrived. He was normal looking dude; had a helmet covering his face, messy traveling clothes, and a huge sword that was tall as he was and he could swing it with just one hand!"

Halting the assault of Halflings and Shadows, the Wanderer brought back some measure of stability to Spree. It was also around this time that Mitsuru and Kotone had triggered into Persona-Users and Akihiko joined their ranks some time later. With so many Persona-Users in one village, Spree prospered as well as it could as it gained many new refugees escaping from the horrors of the Shadows and Halflings. Unable to expand outward, Spree had limited construction upward and downward to accommodate for their increased numbers.

In the end, Spree was dirty and meager but still alive and fighting back.

"But that dude had always been a wanderer, always said so himself. After a few years of helping around, the dude packed up his things and left. Haven't seen or heard word of him since..." Junpei smiled lonely but proudly, "Some of the villagers feel like he betrayed us but — to me — that dude will always be my hero. Yeah, compared to those Seven Asses, the Wanderer is a real hero."

It was pretty clear to Minato that the Wanderer was Junpei's role model.

"He sounds like a good guy," she commented.

The hat-wearing boy chuckled, "Yeah... The Wanderer didn't have much free-time but he didn't mind spending it with kids." He seemed to remember something fondly as he scratched his head and laughed. "Ah, dude, I've talked a lot today and it's getting late. You two won't mind if I head out, right? I'm gotta take a nap, if Mitsuru sees me yawning during the Dark Hour she'll have my neck!"

Kotone answered for them both, "Go on ahead, June! We'll see you later!"

Junpei tipped his hat, waved, "Alright, see ya!" and went back to the Salty Grit to rest up.

After watching the boy leave, the two girls shared a 'what-do-we-do-now?' glance. Silently, they stood around in front of the tavern. Deja vu. They were practically reliving their second-meeting. In the interest of fairness, Minato decided to take the fall this time.

"Do you know where the basement is?"

Kotone nodded, "Yep. It's this way." They rounded the building and came to a stop at the large basement-door. She looked up to the darkening skies as orange-sunset gave away to blue-night then back to Minato, "If you any questions, come find me; my room is the one across from yours. Otherwise, unless there's an engagement, you can probably find me and the rest of SEES at the tavern. Anyways, see ya, Min!" The halberd-wielding girl went away.

June and Min; apparently Kotone had a habit of giving nicknames...

Now left all alone, it was about time that Minato got back to business.

She was the Overlord after all and there were Overlord things to be done.

[...]

She knocked on the basement-door.

"HOOOZ THERE?!" asked a Minion from the other side of it.

Before she could answer, she heard the Minion Master's shout.

"Milord, I suggest you move away from the door." A short pause. "Now open the door quickly, Grubby! We don't want to keep the Overlord waiting."

"OH, OKAY!"

Minato took Gnarl's advice stepped back before the big doors opened outward.

It was quite dark inside and only the glowing yellow eyes of the Minions and Gnarl's shining crystal peered through the darkness. On an off-note, she noticed that the Minion by the door was wearing a skinned-rat for a hat; after the stocking-incident, she wasn't surprised.

"Apologies, Sire. The villagers are a rather stingy bunch with their items. Until we find the Reds, we will have deal with a lack of fire."

She wanted light, not fire.

But, Reds, huh? It sounded like they were similar to the Browns except were red-colored and could use fire somehow.

"Yes, you're quite on the mark about that, Milord," the Minion Master confirmed as it approached, features barely identifiable by the weak lighting of the hanging mineral above its head. "There are four Minion types, Milord. Browns, Reds, Greens, and Blues. After your predecessor's demise, the other Minions scattered to who knows where. I would very much like to find them but they are the least of our concerns..." Gnarl had a pleased smile on its face, "But that's not what you came here for, there is something else on your mind, Milord."

"Hobbleshog."

"Yes, convenient, isn't it? One of those wretched Seven Heroes is so close by... just waiting to be culled by your hands, Sire! Just thinking about it makes me all _tingly_."

"Will I be able to kill him?" It seemed that people didn't think too highly of the Seven Heroes anymore, so there was probably very little repercussions for murdering them. At the very least, Spree had no love for Melvin Underbelly.

"Of course, Sire, you're the Overlord! There is nothing you cannot slay if you put your mind to it." The Minion Master grinned with almost-feral, "But there is no need to rush, Milord. The Halfling Hero's death will come in due time... and we have other things to do."

Minato stared at Gnarl and waited for its elaboration.

"I would suggest that you do not grow attach to these SEES fellows as they are only a means to an end. Once the pressure of the Halflings is off them, your worth will drop and we can't have that happened just yet, Sire. Before you kill the Halfling Hero, we must secure ourselves a proper base-of-operations from which you can lord over from. We must attain independence from these fools and re-establish the supreme-title of the Overlord..."

"Where then?"

"I have yet to find an appropriate location for our new lair, Sire." She wondered how long that would annoyingly take. "Well, since you're so eager, I do have a place in mind that would work well enough, Milord..." Out with it already. Gnarl twiddled its digits, "I have heard that the reason why the Halflings attack Spree... is because they want more slaves, Sire."

_Slave._

Something chaotic boiled within her. She did not understand where it came from, she did not understand why she was feeling it, but she understood that the very concept of slavery made her both shiver with fear and shake with hatred. Her body trembled. It took all of her mental-fortitude not to snatch up the Minion Master by the throat and strangle it for answers.

She hissed through clenched teeth.

"...Where?"

Gnarl smiled, utterly delighted with the bloodlust fouling up the air around them. "I do not know, Sire, but..." the old minion smoothly led its brooding master out of the basement and grinned mischievously, "Why don't we ask those SEES fellows? Surely they would know where the slave-encampment is..."

The blue-hair Overlord didn't hear anymore as she stormed off.

The Minion Master laughed with excitement as it rubbed its hands together with glee.

"Grubby! Gather the Browns... Tonight we're hunting Halflings!"

* * *

**Author Notes**

If Minato couldn't remember their names...

Akihiko Sanada = A-Key-Hole Sander. Yukari Takeba = You-Carry The-Key-Ball. Kotone Shiomi = Cone-Knee She-Only. Mitsuru Kirijo = Mite-Zoo Kill-Joe. Junpei Iori = Jewel-Pay Eat-Yore. Shuji Ikutsuki = Shoe Iky-Suit-Key.

I write terrible puns. Shuji Ikutsuki, why must you torture me so?!


End file.
